More than 300 show up for shot at big-league dreams ( + Video)

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CORPUS CHRISTI - Akeem Winfield hasn’t played a game of organized baseball in 10 years.

Before a $140 shopping spree Wednesday, he owned no cleats, no bat and no glove.

But that didn’t stop Winfield from driving to Corpus Christi from Houston for Thursday’s open tryout hosted by the Astros at Whataburger Field.

“It would be everything to do something different with myself,” said Winfield, 25, whose last baseball team was a Louisiana middle school. “Everybody has got one shot at it, so I’ve got the same chances as anybody else.”

Winfield was one of roughly 340 hopefuls to make the pilgrimage to Corpus Christi for Thursday’s open tryout, where damp fields, an early threat of rain and oppressive afternoon humidity couldn’t scare their dreams away.

The participants’ motives were as varied as their backgrounds.

There was the 26-year-old physical therapist assistant from the Valley who dreamed of making it big, the 41-year-old Corpus Christi crane operator looking to have fun as his 12-year-old son cheered from the concourse and the horde of high school athletes just hoping to put themselves on the Astros’ radar.

If there was one thing that unified them, it was the pursuit of an experience they’d never forget.

“I feel a little nervous, but we’ll see what happens,” said former Robstown baseball player Victor Leal, who graduated high school a year ago. “There’s nothing like baseball.”

Scheduled to start at 9 a.m., the surprisingly high turnout delayed the tryout by more than an hour.

At 10:38 a.m., the mass of bodies filed into right field for a pre-tryout stretch.

At 11 a.m., participants were split into position groups and timed in a 60-yard dash, two by two, until the final participant crossed the finish line at 12:12 p.m.

Then came the first round of cuts.

“This is very honest, blunt and straightforward,” Noel Gonzales-Luna, the Astros’ South Texas area scout, said to the assembled crowd before the tryout began. “For some of you, we may have some good things to say, for others, you may hear something you need to hear. At this time, we’re not expecting to sign anyone directly from here.”

Gonzales-Luna wasn’t exaggerating on the honesty front.

Roughly two-thirds of the participants were sent packing after that first cut, having been eliminated by just a single sprint. Every cut player was given a chance to talk to Gonzales-Luna about why they’d been trimmed and what they could do to improve their chances next time.

The pitchers were then sent to the bullpen, where they were whittled down over the course of three hours, and the infielders and outfielders tried their luck at fielding drills. Catchers got the final look of the bunch, getting their chance to show off in front of a scout at 4:14 p.m.

After that, 11 of the original 300-plus participants were given a chance to hit.

The final hopeful left Whataburger Field at 5:15 p.m.

“As you always have with these, a whole range of players from different walks of life (showed up),” Gonzales-Luna said. “Young kids, older men trying out giving it one last shot — we ultimately paired it down and there were some players who looked like decent ballplayers.”

In the end, Gonzales-Luna said a “small handful” of high school players earned a spot on his radar Wednesday and roughly 10 college-age players just might earn a call.

In the eyes of the Astros, that’s a success.

“For some of them, (my interest) ultimately came down to being very little and I wanted to be honest about that so they can make decisions with their life and going forward with baseball,” Gonzales-Luna said. “With others, I told them I might keep in touch and see if an opportunity comes up.

“This is just the start of it.”

Winfield, the Louisiana transplant from Houston, didn’t make the first cut — his 60-yard dash time wasn’t fast enough — but that doesn’t mean he’s giving up his dream.

“It was a learning experience,” Winfield said. “I was a little too slow, but it’s all good. I learned I have to be faster.

“I’ll be at another one.”

Twitter: @Caller_Kenny

Copyright 2015 Journal Media Group. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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